Looking for good HMI software.

Hello all,
I am looking for some good HMI software which I can run on a PC with Windows XP. We currently use VB to develop our interface and InGear to communicate with our PLC's. We are looking for a "canned" software that has good graphics, a large active X library, and one that can seemlessly transfer data to and from an Oracle database. We've used Automation Direct's C-More and Allen Bradley's Panel View Plus, but neither can do the database transfer we are looking for. The VB works very well but not all of our programmers understand it. Any suggestions? Thanks. Oh, and by the way, it would be nice if we could find something that has unlimited runtime applications. We have about 150 machines we would need to put this on.

We have used iFix with great results. We have used wonderware with good results as well, but don't have any current versions of it. We also use FactoryTalk View SE (all varieties) plus Factory Talk Transaction Manager (formerly known as RSSQL), but I would not recommend the rockwell stuff to anyone.

If I had to start from scratch, I would investigate inductive automation's new "ignition" system.

Interesting, I just hired a guy who was looking at ifix, but he said that it was about $400 to $500 for each runtime deployment. I agree with you on the Factory Talk View SE. AB is famous for telling you that it can do anything, what they fail to mention is that it will be an additional cost for it. Thanks for the leads, I really appreciate it.

Another one for the hat....

http://www.peakhmi.com/

One more thing about the Transaction Manager (RSSQL). We purchased this about a year and a half ago and got it with 5000 tags. (an upcharge of course) It took us about 8 months before we found anyone from Rockwell who knew how to use / explain it. I was just curious how you made out with it?

All I know how to do with it is check the status and restart the machine it runs on. My counterpart here did all the configuration of RSSQL and he's on 2nd shift this week

Haven't tried it yet but this from Beijer looks promising. I think I will need a Degree in Graphic Design to get the best out it.

Bryan

Not a problem. Just curious. I just sat through a web demo from Inductiveautomation, I found it very interesting and it looks like something we can definately use. It's about $9,500 for the "works" but it is has an unlimited amount of clients. It seems very easy to use. Thanks again for the info!!

ghaulk said:

Hello all,
I am looking for some good HMI software which I can run on a PC with Windows XP. We currently use VB to develop our interface and InGear to communicate with our PLC's. The VB works very well but not all of our programmers understand it. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

I know you are looking for other than VB, but I'll throw this out anyway. If the code is developed as components and controls, then non-programmers can make modifications without the need to know VB. AdvancedHMI is an HMI built on that concept. A lot of people use it that have never written a single line of VB code. It's made up of controls that are simply "drag and dropped" from the toolbox and the properties are set.

It's all free, if you wanted to give it a try:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-E8NlUNiX4

http://sourceforge.net/projects/advancedhmi/

Thanks for the info. This looks interesting as well. Again, thanks.

You can use Siemens WinCC Flexible which supports many PLC controllers